St. Landry Parish celebrates school year’s beginning

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Nearly 2,000 St. Landry Parish public school employees met Tuesday for the district’s second annual Convocation to celebrate the beginning of the school year.
About 14,000 students are to report for classes today in the school district.
The convocation at Opelousas Senior High School included honoring retiring School Board members Roger Young, of Eunice, and Charles Ross, of Opelousas.
Young will have served 32 years on the School Board when his term ends and Ross will have 24 years of service.
Superintendent Patrick Jenkins said, “I think the big thing with the convocation is to, one, get people pumped up and ready to go to school, to get excited about our kids and just being ready to go. The second thing is St. Landry Parish is such a large community to be able to bring everyone together to see that we are one.”
This year’s district theme is, “Excellence in education for every student every day,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said morale among the school district’s employee is positive despite the March vote turning down a pair of tax issues that would have meant pay raises and a capital improvement program.
The election setback was a “bump in the road,” Jenkins said. “We are going to hope at some point in the future we can come back and hopefully ask for that. I think that we have to celebrate our successes ... and we’ve had plenty of them whether small or great.”
During the two-hour program Thursday morning, Jenkins highlighted district accomplishments.
They included academic growth, acquiring the Head Start program with more than 700 students and 200 employees, development of a pupil progression plan Leader in Me schools, educator academy, partnerships with LSUE and South Louisiana Community College, partnership with Opelousas General Health System and integration of arts in all schools.
Jenkins also outlined Standards of Performance to the employees.
The standards are Commitment to co-workers, Appearance, Confidentiality, Sense of ownership, Communication and attitude.
“Today is a day of celebration, celebrate our successes and also be prepared to celebrate future successes,” he said.
In welcoming the employees, School Board President Candy Gerace noted thousands of students were about to flood the school halls.
“If kids come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families it makes our jobs a little easier, but if kids do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families it makes our job more important,” she said.
Public schools are open to students from diverse backgrounds, she said.
“Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world,” she said.
“Through you teaching you not only shape the future of our towns, our parishes, our state, of course, our country and the globe,” she said.
Futurists predict the next 20 years will bring more change than has ever occurred in the past.
Gerace urged the employees to have fun. “Learn to take those lumps and have fun,” she said.